health status measured with a tape measure
There is an unexpected tool that can identify the traffic lights of general health. It’s just ‘let’s go’. Measuring the circumference of body parts such as the neck, waist, calves, and thighs on a regular basis can be a good way to predict not only the current health condition but also the upcoming diseases. The ‘secret of the circumference’ is gradually being revealed as a result of scientific research. In particular, depending on the part, if the circumference is long, it may be a green or red signal for health. Starting today, how regarding checking the health of the whole family with a tape measure?
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calf circumference sarcopenia
The circumference of the most convex part of the calf is an indicator of sarcopenia. Sarcopenia is a disease in which muscle mass, strength, and function all decrease. Sarcopenia occurs in 15-25% of people under 70 years of age, and 40% of women and 50% of men following 80 years of age. In the case of Koreans, if the calf circumference is less than 35 cm in men and less than 33 cm in women, sarcopenia is highly likely. According to the ‘Construction and Intervention Study of the Elderly Cohort in Korea and Intervention’ published in the Journal of the Korean Medical Association (2018), Professor Jang-Won Jang of the Department of Family Medicine at Kyunghee University Hospital studied the correlation between calf circumference and sarcopenia in 657 patients aged 70-84 years. As a result, sarcopenia was found in 82% and 72% of men with a calf circumference of less than 35 cm and women with a calf circumference of less than 33 cm, respectively.
The reason the calf circumference is counted as an indicator of sarcopenia is that the calf is nothing more than a ‘microcosm of the whole body’. Professor Won Jang-won said, “The calf is a region with low toxic fat and abundant muscle. When sarcopenia is diagnosed, it is urgent to identify the factors affecting the worsening of symptoms and accompanying diseases, and then remove the cause.
You should eat protein foods containing essential amino acids, such as milk and beef, and do muscle strength and aerobic exercise at the same time. If you marinate the meat with pineapple, pear, kiwi, or vinegar, it loosens the protein binding in the meat, so even the elderly can consume it softly. In old age, low-intensity aerobic exercise or continuing physical activity in daily life is recommended. These include walking at a brisk pace, clasping hands with arms wide open, and riding a bicycle while lying down.
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thigh circumference Diabetes, blood clots
The thinner your thighs, the greater your risk of developing diabetes. In 2013, the Yonsei University Graduate School of Public Health analyzed data from 320,000 men and women aged 30 to 79 years old, and found that for every 1 cm of thigh circumference, the risk of diabetes increased by 8.3% for men and 9.6% for women. Men with a thigh circumference of less than 43 centimeters were four times more likely to develop diabetes than men with a thigh circumference of 60 centimeters or more, and women with a thigh circumference of less than 43 centimeters had a 5.4 times higher risk than women with a thigh circumference of 57 centimeters or more. Professor Won explained, “More than two-thirds of the body’s muscles are gathered in the thighs.” He explained, “The thigh muscles are so important for blood sugar control that regarding 70% of the glucose consumed is consumed in the thigh muscles.”
Thin thighs increase the risk of blood clots following surgery. Gachon University Gil Hospital Orthopedic Surgery Professor Byung-Hoon Lee took pictures of thigh muscle mass of 261 patients who underwent knee arthroplasty and divided them into upper, middle, and lower parts. Vascular status was tracked. The 5th to 7th day following surgery is the time when the risk of thrombus formation is highest due to reduced blood circulation in patients with reduced mobility and damage to blood vessels during the operation. As a result of the study, the risk of ‘deep vein thrombosis’, a blood clot that occurs in the calf, was 2.97 times higher in the ‘lower group (52 patients)’ than the upper and middle group with the weakest thigh. Professor Lee Byung-hoon analyzed, “If the thigh muscle is insufficient, the force to pull blood toward the heart is insufficient, and the elasticity of blood vessels is lowered, which is presumed to have affected the formation of blood clots.” Resistance exercises such as lying down and lifting legs and squats are effective in promoting muscle cell regeneration and increasing muscle strength.
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neck circumference metabolic syndrome
Recently, neck circumference has emerged as a new indicator of the risk of cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome. A research team from the Department of Family Medicine at Myongji Hospital analyzed the relationship between neck circumference and metabolic syndrome in 4,208 adults over 40 who participated in the 2019 National Health and Nutrition Survey. The average neck circumference of the subjects was 38.1 cm for men and 32.8 cm for women. The research team presented the criteria for neck circumference that might cause metabolic syndrome to be 38 cm or more for men and 33 cm or more for women, and classified them as people with thick necks. As a result of the study, people with thick necks had a 1.8 times higher risk of hypertension in men and 1.7 times in women than those with thin necks.
The risk of diabetes was 1.5 times higher in men and 2.1 times higher in women as the neck was thicker. In particular, the risk of developing metabolic syndrome was 2.9 times higher for women with thick necks than for women with thin necks, and 2.4 times for men. The longer the neck circumference, the higher the waist circumference, BMI (body mass index), diastolic blood pressure, fasting blood sugar, fasting insulin, glycated hemoglobin, and triglyceride levels, regardless of gender, but the healthy HDL cholesterol level fell. The research team noted, “Increased neck circumference is one of the risk factors for cardiovascular disease in Koreans, and is an indicator that can be used to predict the risk of metabolic syndrome.”
According to the results of a study of the neck circumference of 3,300 men and women by the American Heart Association, as the neck circumference increased by 3 cm, HDL cholesterol decreased by 2.2 mg/dL in men and 2.7 mg/dL in women. On the other hand, blood sugar increased by 3 mg/dL in men and 2.1 mg/dL in women. The thicker the neck, the greater the stiffness of the arteries and the increased incidence of angina, and some studies show that the risk of coronary artery disease increases within 10 years.
Neck circumference is proportional to obesity. If you gain weight in your upper body, your neck circumference will increase. When you lose weight, your neck naturally becomes thinner. Chewing your food more slowly than usual can help you feel full and reduce your calorie intake. Long neck circumference is also used as a major risk factor for obstructive sleep apnea. Obesity is the main cause of obstructive sleep apnea. If you have a thick neck and are drowsy or snoring during the day even following sleeping, it is good to have a polysomnography test.
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Waist circumference Dementia, tumor
Waist circumference is surprisingly a measure of the risk of dementia and colorectal tumors. According to a long-term study conducted by the California health care organization Kaiser Permanante on 6583 men and women, the waist circumference of middle-aged people was measured between 1964 and 1973, and medical records were recorded 30 years later (73-87 years old). investigated. A total of 1,049 people were diagnosed with dementia between 1994 and 2006, when they became the elderly. As a result of the study, people with thick waists in middle age had a higher risk of developing dementia in old age. The top 40% had a 49% higher rate of dementia than the group with the shortest waist circumference (bottom 20%), the top 20% had a 67% higher rate, and the group with the widest waist had a whopping 272% higher rate. It is analyzed that abdominal obesity and visceral fat may indirectly affect dementia while increasing the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
It is also associated with the development of tumors in the colon. Kangbuk Samsung Hospital’s Gastroenterology Department Professor Yoon-sook Jeong’s team analyzed the incidence of colon tumors according to waist circumference in 63,057 people who underwent colonoscopy during a health checkup. The incidence of colon tumors in the male group with an average waist circumference of 84 cm (82.1 to 108 cm) was 18.7%, which was higher than that of the 73.9 cm group (14.2%), 77.8 cm group (15.5%), and 80.5 cm group (15.5%). 4.5 percentage points higher. The incidence of colon tumors (11.5%) in the female group with an average waist circumference of 79.6 cm (77.1 to 99.5 cm) was also the highest in the 68 cm group (7.4%), 72 cm group (8.9%), and 75.2 cm group (9.4%). It exceeded 4.1 percentage points. The research team estimated that “obesity-related metabolic abnormalities affecting colorectal cancer, etc., may be due to visceral fat in the abdomen.” Increasing the intake of whole grains such as brown rice rather than refined grains such as white rice, bread, and pasta helps to reduce the waist circumference by reducing the accumulation of visceral fat.
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